My 5 Most Influential Vinyl Albums

This thing is going around on Facebook, where people list 10 albums, presumably from the vinyl album era. They're supposed to be the ones that had the biggest influence or impact on them. I've messed around with playing, but haven't followed the rules of listing one per day, and of nominating one friend to list their 10 albums, one per day and telling them to nominate a different friend each day. It's sort of a Facebook chain letter of music. I thought it might be fun to explore it here. I'm only going to list 5, because these five are the ones that were the gateway to the soundtrack of my life. The 5 I'll list won't be the first 5, the best 5, or even my favorite 5. I'll try to list the 5 that, looking back after all these years, in some cases 50 plus, and in all cases no less than 40 years ago. So, without further adieu, here they are, in no strict order.

1. "Cosmo's Factory" - Creedence Clearwater Revival. This record is the first album I remember getting that made me think I'd found my favorite band. A that point in my life I hadn't ever thought about the songs with any insight into where the tune came from, or was it blues, or country, or soul, or folk. But when I listened to Cosmo's Factory, I just knew that I liked it. A handful of the songs, most notably "Travelin' Band", "Lookin' Out My Back Door", and "Who'll Stop the Rain", became radio staples, with WABC AM in New York City playing each again and again in their Top 40 rotation. And those songs hooked my into that album, and that album, which also featured Creedence's great covers of "Before You Accuse Me", "My Baby Left Me," and "I heard It Through the Grapevine" among its 11 tracks, made Creedence my first favorite band, and still today, they're one of the bands I like to listen to most while driving, or cycling, or messing around washing my truck or cleaning up the garage. At this juncture, "Bayou Country" is, and has long been, my favorite Creedence album, but "Cosmo's Factory" was the one that got me first.

Before You Accuse Me

2. "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" - The Rolling Stones. I love the Stones. My musical taste has really grown into their music over the years. And of all the different time periods and Stones lineups, the years when Mick Taylor played lead guitar has always been my favorite. Get Yer Ya Ya's Out starts with a really rocking "Jumping Jack Flash", which starts with the Stones' intro at venue after venue recorded during their 1969 U.S. tour. "The greatest rock and roll band in the world, welcome The Rolling Stones!...The Rolling Stones... Welcome the Rolling Stones." And they crank into it. They do some straight blues, "Midnight Rambler", a couple of awesome Chuck Berry covers, "Carol" and "Little Queenie. "Stray Cat Blues" and "Sympathy for the Devil" are my favorite two tracks on the single disc live album. I've probably listened to "Get Yer Ya Ya's Out" more than any other album not recorded by the Allman Brothers Band or the Grateful Dead.

Sympathy for the Devil from Ya Yas

3. "Live at Fillmore East" - The Allman Brothers Band. I still remember the first time I saw the Allman Brothers on television. It was probably late 1972. It was recorded after my guitar idol Duane Allman died in a motorcycle crash in Macon in October of 1971, but before Berry Oakley, the band's original bassist died in an eerily similar accident in November of 1972. I don't remember if it aired in late 1972 or early 1973, but I took note. Their music interested me. Then in the spring of 19973 they released a studio album called Brothers and Sisters, which was the gateway for my interest in the 'Brothers'. And I'm pretty sure my brother Mike and I got the Eat a Peach album, which was ecorded before Brothers and Sisters next. But it was the album Allman Brothers fans just call "The Fillmore Album" that changed my musical taste and interest for the rest of my life. It was blues, almost jazz, long guitar solos, and deep, soulful songs from deep within a tortured soul that touched mine directly. From it's opening "Statesboro Blues", all the way to a 22 minute "Whipping Post", every note, every sound, every soulful refrain sung by Gregg seemed to have been played and sung directly at and to me. It is the album against which all others are measured for me. I don't know how many hundreds of times I've listened to it, but it can still give me goose bumps, given the right mood and the right level of concentration. Did I mention "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "stormy Monday"? "You Don't Love Me"? I did now. I love this record. I really do.

The 1972 TV Show

4. "On the Border" - The Eagles. The Long Run is my favorite Eagles album, and Greatest Hits is the one I'm most likely to listen to. But when I think of the vinyl record era, something I always think about is high school days, listening to music with my high school chum, Jimmy, may he rest in peace. We had a really special little circle of friends, and probably more so than anything, Jimmy and I liked to listen to music. We loved it. And of all the concerts we went to, all the radio we listened to while playing ping pong, what always comes to my most sentimental mind, is us listening to On The Border. He had a record player in his bedroom, and we'd sit there and listen to it and talk about the songs, songs in general, music, books we read, life, girls, and all the things 15, 16, and 17 year old kids talked about. And a lot of times, this album was on. Jimmy got it when it first came out. My favorites on it then were "Already Gone", "On the Border", and "James Dean". But "Ol' 55", a Tom Waits song, and "Best of my Love" are on there, too. Sure, there are other albums I like a lot more. There are even other Eagles albums I like a lot more. But sentimentally, because of the time in my life, was a difference maker for me.

James Dean

5. "Europe '72" - The Grateful Dead. I remember one day after school in 1973, I ran into my old friend Rich Procassini on my way out of school. I remember telling him this and that about the Allman Brothers, with whom I was fully and totally obsessed at the time. Rich said he had something I had to hear, the Dead's Europe '72 album. I was a little familiar with the Dead, but not much. My cousins Bill and Peter had the American Beauty album and I'd heard it a couple of times. But up till then I hadn't heard any of the Grateful Dead's live stuff. Europe '72 was a three record set. It had a mix of rock songs, some country sounding stuff, blues, folk, and psychedelia. It is a record that had something for everyone. Europe '72 was really my gateway into the Grateful Dead's music. "Brown Eyed Women", "Tennessee Jed", "He's Gone", "One More Saturday Night", "Morning Dew", "China Cat Sunflower" into "I Know You Rider" are all all time favorite of mine. This album is etched in my brain. The lineup on this album was my favorite, with Keith Godchaux on keyboards, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan on organ and harmonica. Pigpen died shortly after this was recorded, sometime shortly before Rich turned me onto it. There are a handful of records that can give me those goosebumps. This is one of them.

Brown Eyed Women

I may go ahead and list my other five records, to make it 10 sometime, but these 5 are where my 10 have to start.

Have a nice evening, friends! God bless.